Happy 20th Birthday Elder Hopkins - 05/05/11

A sweet Member, Brother Call, took Elder Hopkins to lunch for his birthday.

Then he was sweet enough to send me this picture via text message.

Bro Call also left me a voice mail saying he had my son with him and he was going to let him

say hello but my sweet Elder declined and was obedient which made my day even better!!

Then later in the day I recieved this picture via text!!

My son Rob is working summer Sales in Hampton Virginia.

He called the Assitants to the President and asked if he could give his brother a

call for his birthday. Later that day the Mission President called Rob and told him that

Elder Hopkins was such "a great missionary" that he thought his brother should

take him to ice cream for his birthday treat. Rob was shocked but super excited to get to see his brother.

It's May - 05/02/11

Good morning!

Hello, thank you for singing happy birthday... it's crazy that my birthday is just around the corner, no longer 19, the big 20! haha, it'll be good, because everyday is good on the mission! :) Don't worry mom, I'm reading your e-mails, I knew all about Rob and dad driving here and being here, it's a crazy thought Rob is just up the road from here, but I do read your e-mails. I'm so grateful for them, I love the info I get about home, the exciting things that are going on there... haha, hopefully Eric is completely bored ;). Missionary work here is taking off!!! It's amazing what is happening, our zone, and throughout the whole mission amazing things are happening. The work in our area is taking off as well, new investigators to teach, we have 2 people set for baptism at the end of this month with more soon to come. April 30th there were 4 baptisms in one area, Mt. Pleasant, the area right next to us is seeing so many miracles. In the month of April the Chesapeake zone has had 8 baptisms!!! That is amazing... Missionary work is so cool! This next week we get to up to Richmond for a Zone Leader Council and just get to learn from President and the assistants and get council for our areas, then on Friday we will have a zone meeting, those are always fun, it's pretty intense standing up in front of all of these amazing missionaries and teaching them and trying to help them become the best missionaries they can become. I sure do grow a lot from doing that, I have learned so much from other missionaries, and usually teaching them I learn so much from studying to help them, I'm sure I learn more than they do from what I'm trying to share with them, haha. Well, the Buffalo Wild Wing challenge happened and it went well, I finished the 12 wings in 5 minutes 30 seconds, so I had 30 seconds to spare, with them trying to take pictures while I'm eating, hahaha, there are some good pictures. I won a t-shirt but they didn't have a big enough size so hopefully I will be getting one that fits me soon. :) For my card, I'll just see if I can call it, it will make it easier and I'm sure that will be ok... And for mothers day, I'm excited too! We'll be going to our bishops home for dinner and then to call, so I'm guessing it will be around 6:00 or later here, so around 4 or so there. I don't know the exact time, but around there. The people we are meeting with are amazing, we have 4 investigators right now so it still has room for improvement, but 2 of them are preparing for baptism, Tonya Edmonds, and Russell Brownley, the other 2 are Al and Steve, they are all amazing and could really use some prayers. I can tell you more about them on Sunday. ;) The story about the tow truck guy is over, we haven't seen him since then or been able to get in contact with him, kind of sad, but it happens and we need to move on and continue to look for more of Gods children who are ready and being prepared. Missionary work is amazing and it will continue to go forth no matter what, I love the life of a missionary, each day I see the Lord at work, each day I am further converted to the gospel, and each day I am blessed and the people I serve with and those I come in contact with are blessed. God loves His children so much, it is humbling to know that He has called me to help Him in this work. Each of you are apart of this work as well, don't give up, and don't give in to the temptations that Satan continues to throw at us, Christ met those head on, and overcame everything that Satan can give. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and it is for everyone who will ever live. I love my Savior and my Father and I am so grateful for their love towards me. This church is true, we must never forget what God has given us. I love you all and I am thankful for each and every single one of you, we are apart of each others lives for a reason. Have a great week, and have a great day! Don't forget to smile! :D

With much love,

Elder Hopkins

February 2011 Transfers

The Missionaries of the Virginia Richmond Mission

There are 260 Missionaries serving in the Va Richmond Mission!! They are so large that it takes two pictures to get them all in a group!

Where's Waldo umm I mean Elder Hopkins?

My favorite part of this pictures is the Elders in the front row with their worn out shoe soles!!!

Amazing Week - 04/25/11

Hello Hello!

This week has been great, there have been so many things going on this week!!! Chesapeake is turning around and it's just so exciting! I'll tell you more about that in a second, first for some little news... Yes, I got the package, thank you so much for everything in there I love it! I was wondering, on the debit card there is the phone number I need to call but it says I need to call from my home phone, if that is so here is the phone number: 843-871-5095, so there is that. Also, I would still like to know my pin number for it, that would be nice, haha. Really though, thank you for everything in there it is great! HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!! It was yesterday but I didn't get to do that, haha. I want to ask a HUGE favor for every reads this before Wednesday... Will you keep me in your prayers? Nothing serious, a member here in Chesapeake takes all the missionaries to a place called Buffalo Wild Wings, its a great place, but they have a challenge for people. That challenge is to eat 6 wings in 12 minutes... sounds easy right? The catch is that all of the wings are covered with their blazin sauce!!!!!! IT IS FIERY HOT!!!! Well family, and maybe some friends you know how I am with hot things, although I have been preparing myself eating all kinds of hot peppers and just suffering through the pain these wings are ultra hot, so really just wish me luck, haha. That will be Wednesday at 12, hahahaha. That's really it there, as for this amazing week, this area has been a little slow, but we haven't stopped trying to find people to teach and inviting people to come to Christ. We have been meeeting with the black sister named Tanya who just got married to her Jehovahs Witness now husband, we have been taking movies over there because she gets the most out of those, and we come to find out that Johnny (the husband) is now interested as well! We watch Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration with them and they just love it! The next meeting we come over to talk about in a little more depth, we end up setting her for baptism on May 28th! Her hold up right now is her foot, it is all swollen because of blood clots, so if you could just keep her in your prayers that would be awesome! Also later this week we were able to find 2 more people to teach. Al and Steve, they are also black and they are sooooo solid. They wanted us to come back, they had awesome questions and were so interested, Al drives so they can come to church which is usually the hard thing since usually people in that area don't have cars or things like that, so it is amazing, they have the internet so we were able to get them onto mormon.org and they just love everything! I LOVE IT!!! Amazing things are happening and hopefully they will continue to progress. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is what's needed for happiness. People who hear about it recognize it, and it is an amazing process to be apart of. I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Mom... I'll talk to you soon. :) I love you.

Much love,

Elder Hopkins

Miracles and Blessings Abound - 04/18/11

Hello,

Sounds like things are going great at home, I'm glad to hear of all the amazing things that are going on, miracles and blessings, it's so good! I can't believe how many people are coming to Virginia!!! haha, that's so funny, they are all going to just love Virginia Beach, it's a sweet area, I haven't been over there to much but for the times that I have it looks really nice, also I was talking to Rob about the missionaries there, they have some great missionaries... Then again, all missonaries are great so it makes sense! haha, I am so glad to hear that Jess and Afton are progressing to the temple, that is what everything comes down to, that is where we want all of God's children to go, baptism is just one thing, it is that continual christian living that gets us back to our Heavenly Father. Also, so it's not official, but Rob and Mariah, that is so cool! I'm super happy for them as well making those same steps. Not to mention you working in the temple, it sure sounds like our family is in the right place. Some things that will continue to help, I think of the talk from Elder Christofferson I think it was, when he was talking about making our home a Christ centered home. The home should be the second closest place to heaven next to the temple, do all you can to make it that way, pictures of the temple, prophets, our Savior, and also weekly family home evening. I know our family wasn't always the greatest at that, but with you mom and Eric at home you can do your own family home evening. There are amazing blessings in store for those who keep a Christ centered home! Update on the tornadoes, yes it was intense. There were 68 targeted tornadoes in Albemarle, 20 people were killed, it is tragic. All of the missionaries are accounted for and they are planning on service projects in the area. The storm reached across a lot of land, even we had some tornado warnings, nothing got to serious just a lot of rain and a lot of wind but everything is ok. There are so many things going on around the world, natural disasters, wars, and rumors of wars... Things are getting out of hand but like it says in Helaman 5:12, as long as we build on a firm foundation it doesn't matter what comes our way. Alma 38:5, trust in the Lord and we will be lifted and protected from all trials that come our way. This isn't a time to be afraid, for we know the signs and we know what the scriptures say. This is the time to prepare, and to rejoice for these things being fulfilled. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love all that it does for His children. This church is true. I love you all and I pray for you, have a great week! Until next Monday...

Elder Hopkins

Another Week Bites the Dust.....04/11/11

Good morning Good morning Good morning!!!

Hello everyone, things are going great here in Virginia, still loving it and some days its getting nice and warm and sunny, its nice. ;) Mom, that was a great e-mail, a nice update on people. I'm so glad to hear that dads birthday went well, I hope he got my letter I wrote to him for his birthday. Afton got a new calling, sounds super sweet. Eric is bored for Spring Break... haha, he has his xbox ;) I'm sure Chantz will play with him. Also, the biggest news ever... ROB IS ENGAGED!!! Now, am I wrong? Is he getting engaged soon or is he actually engaged, I'm not 100% sure, but still! That is awesome! This has been a great week of e-mails, thank you. I was wondering if you had ever sent that other memory card for my camera, if so, it never got here. I was also wondering if you ever got my request for some pictures from family, home, what would be cool as well are some pictures from that photo shoot grandma took of me dunking, I never got to see any of those. Anyways... haha, this week has been alright. Transfers came and now we have some new missionaries in the zone. We'll see how it goes, this Wednesday is Zone Leader Council so we really get to discuss things that are going on, also we have a Zone Meeting... They are great, but pretty stressful and they make me nervous because we get to go up and give trainings to all of the other missionaries. I'm pretty sure I'm, no I am sure that I am going to train on Revelation through Church Attendance, it is something that the zone, us included, are struggling with. Getting people to church, those that we are teaching or meeting, things like that. We have decided also that we won't take notes up either, so we write our thoughts down and study it and study scriptures and go up with no notes, it makes it intense but the spirit is really powerful so it helps out. haha. Sometime coming up there is a member that always takes the missionaries to Buffalo Wild Wings, it is a really good place with excellent wings, but the thing is, he takes the new missionary to the area and they have to do the challenge. It's my turn, and it's called the Blazin Challenge!!! Are you kidding me!? Do I eat hot things!? No, but I'm going to have to, it's 12 blazin wings in 6 minutes... The other day in preparation I ate half a jalapenio and about died, haha, so this should be interesting. Not much has changed around here since last week, hopefully we'll be able to turn things around and make the work really progress here in the Great Bridge area, I love this gospel and I love having the opportunity to share it every single day. Being an example of the believers is an amazing opportunity we all have, and I pray that you will take full advantage of that. I can't wait to see your mormon.org profiles, we get to on there pretty often to get familiar with it, so that will be fun. :) I love you all and pray for you daily, God knows each of you personally and will hear and answer your prayers no matter how many times you pray and ask Him, He loves you. I hope you all have a great week! Until next time... :)

Elder Hopkins

It's April - Exchanges, General Conference and Transfers - 04/04/11

Good morning,

What a crazy week, there has been a lot of things going on, a lot of fun things and a lot of frustrating and tiring things. haha, it just seems to be the life of a missionary (which I love by the way ;) ). This last week we went and worked with a lot of other missionaries... And our zone is huge! First, on Thursday we went up to Portsmouth to spend some time with them and get a baptismal interview done which was good, I got to stay in their area, do the interview and ride around on my bike! After that exchange we made the long drive to Ahoskie North Carolina!!! Wow, that place is the sticks! haha, it was really good though and much needed, they are going through some pretty hard times down there and hopefully we were able to help out. After that exchange we went later that night to Albemarle, still in North Carolina for more baptismal interviews! Itsn't it great to see all of these people preparing for baptism, it's amazing, and it's even better because we get to meet a lot of them and help them in their journey! :) So after all of this we finally end up leaving back for our apartment at about 8:00 maybe a little later even, and it is about an hour, maybe and hour and a half drive... Wow talk about fun, haha, I got to drive that day too. :) Then, the great day of Conference... What an amazing thing, I am so grateful for Elder Hollands talk at the very end, to really think about what Conference is and what happens there, just amazing! Mom, like you, Elder Scott, and Elder Robins (the one with the to do and to be) were some of my most favorites, I also loved Elder Bednars talk on revelation, and Larry M. Gibsons talk on the Priesthood Presidency and the Deacon boy. Priesthood session was just great as it always is, but we missed a good chunk of President Monsons talk because of some satelite reception, so that was pretty sad. There were so many good talks I could just go on and on and on! Again with Elder Hollands talk when he talked about when we listen with the spirit, and they teach and talk by the spirit, there will always be something that we need to hear that will impact us. These devoted servants of our Father in Heaven are so inspired I just love it, the love and care about us so much that they do all they can to listen to the small impressions of the spirit and do the best they can to follow and to act on what they receive. I know that they are called of God to lead and direct His church here on earth, and we are so blessed to have that. Mom, like you said you can't wait to get the Ensign, I'm right there with you, and President Monson told us to read and STUDY it, something I haven't always done, or have done the best of. I can't wait to really delve into what these inspired men and women and given to us. There were so many amazing talks on family, temples, charity, revelation, repentance, and the atonement... and others... It is amazing, like you said, that each time they come up with something that just blows us away... Again it is because we are listening with the spirit and our hearts, not just our ears. Transfer calls also happened last night, Elder Gill and I get to stay here in Chesapeake, but it looks like there may be some problems in the zone with missionaries staying and missionaries coming in. I have complete trust and confidence that President is sending the missionaries or keeping them where they need to be, it is about letting other missionaries recognize that it is happening for a reason. Missionaries go through so much, more than you think, and it is up to us as their zone leaders to help encourage them and give them the confidence they need to really appreciate the mantle that they wear. Missionaries are amazing... I hope all is going well at home, remember how important the family and the home is, strive to do all you can to have a Christ centered home, put a temple in each room. :) I love you all and wish you all the very best, you are in my prayers.

With much love,

Elder Neil Hopkins

Leadership Meetings - 03/28/11

It's good to hear about everyone, and whats going on. Thank you for the information on what everyone is doing, that is really good to hear. With your question I will need to study it a little bit. It is a really good question so I thank you for that! :) The Atonement is a great topic to study, so important and so beneficial. So I'll get on that and probably write or e-mail you next week.

This last week was really good, I went to Richmond for 4 days for the leadership meeting. This wasn't all of the leaders though, they are trying to get everyone to go to these meetings so it was cool to meet a bunch of new missionaries. The spirit was strong as it always is when children of God gather together to discuss on how to build the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Pretty much it's there when children of God gather together period. We got to learn a lot of things and I feel it was really helpful and really beneficial. I went with the missionaries in Midlothian, it was a struggling area, couldn't find anyone to teach and just going really slow. It was Elder Carpenter, Elder Caldwell, his companion Elder Farr and myself. Thursday night President made an amazing promise to all of us and we went tracting that night. We were completely led by the spirit in all that we did and that night we ended up finding 4 new investigators and the night before Elder Carpenter and myself found 1, so we were able to kick off a good start to that area! :) Being a zone leader is a lot of fun but there are some pretty stressful things that come up with other missionaries and it's up to us to help them. I really do love helping other missionaries though, being able to listen to them and just help as best as we can. Anyways this next weekend is General Conference!!! I'm so excited it is the best! I ask that you all prepare yourselves and go into it with a prayer and questions and I promise you that you will recieve an answer to whatever you are looking for, no matter what. Also, this next Sunday is transfer calls! It came so quick, pretty crazy but I think Elder Gill and I will both stay. I am grateful for every single one of you and I wish you all the best of luck in all that you do. I love you all! :)

Until next time,

Elder Hopkins

Missionaries are still Boys too!!! 03/21/11

Good morning!

This week has been pretty intense, and I have a good story coming up soon. haha, anyways we got to start our week off by going on some exchanges with the missionaries in Franklin, Elder Bischoff and Elder Hylton, that was a lot of fun, we know them both from Charottesville. They have been having a pretty hard time so we just went and talked to them quite a bit and tried our best to help them, so it was a pretty good time. They have a huge country area so that was really fun, really different from what I'm used to working in. Being a zone leader is cool because we get to spend a lot of time with other missionaries and go to their district meetings, Wednesday we went to Portsmouths district meeting and that was really good, later that night we were able to interview someone that got baptized just this last Saturday, also a very cool experience. :) Friday we were able to go to another district meeting, this one was in Currituck North Carolina! It is so sweet traveling to North Carolina, we got to see a lot of water and took some good pictures so that was pretty fun, the district meeting was a little different so we will see what we can do to help out that district leader, he is a great missionary and has all of the right intentions it's just some different things happening. haha, so later that day we were going to go tracting around a head-quarter referral that we had tried to contact and before we started that we were talking to the assistant, Elder Fairclough who we know a lot of the same people at home, he went to Lone Peak as well, but I never knew him. Well we were talking with him and we told him that we were going to tract and he was just like don't do that, oh come on Elders, haha so we decided not to go tracting. I agree with him, tracting is worthless, 1 out of 1000 people found tracting will get baptized. Not the greatest numbers. So we decided to go and use our talents in trying to find people, this story leads up to the story that I wanted to share, so myself and Elder Gill are pretty good at basketball so we decide to go to the ghetto and find people to teach, some young single adults, by playing basketball with them. We get to this streetball court where there are a ton of people playing ball and watching and people walking around on the grass so we decide to play there, it was super nerve racking walking up to those courts in our shirts and ties to play ball with them. We start shooting with them and we seriously can't miss a shot it was hilarious! They started asking if we played for Duke!!! haha, quote: "Hey ya'll play for Duke?" :) I start dunking and they pretty much freak out, haha, so we started talking to some people but nothing to big came out of it, we got our faces out there and was able to give out some pass along cards but that was about it. The next day, Saturday the 19th we plan to go out there again to see if we can have any better luck. Around 5 we show up to the courts and there is just a completely different group of people there so it seemed great! We walk up there and ask if we can jump in with some who where playing and they were pretty much laughing at us and saying you can step on next. I don't blame them, 2 white boys showing up to play ball in a shirt and tie with slacks on just doesn't look good. Luckily the other side of the court starts to play and we ask if we can step on with them and again they start laughing and start saying things like: "Hey look they want to play with us," or "These two want to play ball?" Then we start shooting around and then they decide they want us on their team! hahaha, they set up a game with the guys who didn't want to play with us, so we start putting our stuff down. I put all my cards and the keys down on the bench so nothing falls out of my pockets and go over to play. We play for like 30 to 45 minutes, just owning everyone who steps on the court, they didn't like us because we were seriously going to town, breaking their ankles and dunking on them and stuff. haha, so we recognize that they are just getting mad at us and no one wanting to talk to us about the gospel we decide to quit and go try something more effective. We go back to grab our stuff and everything is there except our keys... SOMEONE SWIPES OUR KEYS!!! I guess I should have seen it coming, in the ghetto and I put our car keys down, smooth move by me right? I felt awful, at least our car was still there. ;) Well end up calling the cops, they don't do anything, so we end up calling a tow truck and all this stuff, we had our car keys on there, apartment keys, mail key, church key, everything. We make a lot of phone calls and it starts to get dark while we are waiting for the tow truck. WOW, can you say scary, just before the sun sets everyone that was playing basketball was gone, a group over under a tree make a garbage fire and all these people start showing up over there to do who knows what... A lot of swearing and things like that, it was pretty freaky. Finally the tow truck shows up and we get to have it towed back to our apartment because there is no way we were going to leave it there to get stolen. The good thing is that all of this we get to talk to the tow truck guy, his name was Brian and he has a wife and a 17 month old boy. He was talking how he wanted a good church to raise his little boy in, isn't it great how things like this just happen. We tell him about our church and the great nursery and primary, how the whole family can be together and things like that. We give him a card, he shows us where he lives. Everything after that worked out perfectly to where we have all of our keys now. It's a pretty amazing story, not the greatest things happened, but we were able to meet a really nice guy and share some of what our church has to offer. It's amazing how people are being placed in our path, people who will listen to things that we have to share. Although I don't have common sense, I do have the knowledge that will bring people eternal happiness, and eternal life with their family. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fact that it is a part of my life. We are truly blessed to have these truths and it is up to us to share it with those around us. I love my Heavenly Father, I love Jesus Christ, and I love this work that I get to be apart of. We are all apart of the great work here, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to invite our friends, our brothers, and our sisters, to the knowledge that they have someone who cares for them, who loves them, and who wants them to come back to Him. Quoting Joseph Smith, "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" Ask yourself that... Thank you for all that you do, I love you all. :)

Much Love,

Elder Hopkins

The Invitation - 03/14/11

Hello,

Yes, I titled this one "The Invitation" for a reason! Don't worry about it, it's a good invitation. I'll just start right to the point, no beating around the bush. haha, I want to invite all of you, whoever reads this (family, extended family, friends, neighbors) to make a mormon.org profile! It's super simple and it will help the church more than you know. Mormon.org is such a great website and we get to go explore it for 30 minutes each day so we really can extend invitations to people here in Virginia to check it out. You can put it on Facebook, Twitter, and whatever else there is in the crazy world. haha, I can promise you that you feel joy and happiness as you do this because it can help some of Gods children find out the truth. Because of mormon.org and the profiles more people are coming closer to their Father in Heaven. Will you do that? Let me know, and I will follow up with you. Other than that things here are going well, progressing along slowly but surely. :) This last Sunday was great, President and Sister Perry came to our sacrament meeting and filled everyone with the spirit, it was amazing, I love listening to both of them! They are very much inspired on what to say. Leadership meeting is next week, well now it is the 8 focuses training so all of the missionaries can start going and experience it and learn more of the simplified corriculum (however you spell that). Some of the leaders get to go, I get to go and 1 zone leader from each zone, then a few district leaders, so it will be fun to help out some of the missionaries. :) Thank you for you prayers and your support, they are very much needed and appreciated, I pray for ya'll often. I love you and I wish you all the best in your upcoming week. :) I very much do love the life of a missionary! :)

Much love,

Elder Hopkins

8 MONTHS - 03/07/11

Good morning!

Well yes, this morning after our studies I realized that today is my 8 month mark... sad day! Things are going good, I had my first zone meeting this last Friday and it went really well. I was super nervous, especially since Elder Gill and myself decided not to take our notes up with us, we prepared and wrote things down that we were going to talk about but then we didn't take it up to use it. Things still went great and it was a lot of fun to stand up and begin sharing the love that I have of being a missionary and to be able to have an impact on these other missionaries and really help them recognize the importance of their calling as a representative of Jesus Christ (that is what I trained on) and Elder Gill explained how we can really become a successful missionary. Things went really well! Things are going really well here, we're trying to pick up some of the work, we have a family of 5 that we are teaching and they are progressing and struggling at the same time with some people holding them back, that is the biggest thing that is going on here. Being a zone leader is fun, but it is really different, there are a lot of things going on and a lot of planning and counciling that goes on. We really get to talk to the other missionaries about problems that they are having and get to hear of all the miracles that are happening as well, it is really cool to be looked up to and to have people know that we can help them and that we really care. I love helping other missionaries and talking to them and helping them focus and see how blessed they really are. Being a missionary is just so great and I love it! :) Fast Sunday was great, we work in a family ward and a singles branch so I was able to bear my testimony twice yesterday in both meetings and it was just great, I love these people and I love being a part of their family. :) I hope all is going well. Mom, there is a talk in the new Ensign, the March 2011 issue called Learning to Forgive. Try giving that a read and I know it will help, it helped me out a lot, there are so many amazing things in the Ensign and I wish I would have looked at them more before my mission. Anyways, I love you all so very much, let me know if there is anything that I can do for you. Sorry I haven't been writing that much, I need to be better at that. Just know I love you and I hope you have a great day and a great week!

Much love,

Elder Hopkins

Hello From Chesapeake - 02/28/11

Mom you are right, it was bitter sweet but I am so excited to be here! I've already been able to travel into North Carolina and visit some of the missionaries down there and help them prepare to be a district leader. We went to Currituck and went near the ocean, it was soooo sweet! :) Leaving the friends that I had made in Harrisonburg was hard, leaving the missionaries, the ward, and the investigators, also the recent converts was hard, but what is great is all of the missionaries are called of God and they are called there for a reason. Elder Bangerter, the missionary who went in for me will be great there, also Elder Van Wagoner will have a great oppertunity to lead out and really open up which will be great! I can already tell that becoming a zone leader here will be a huge, and great learning experience and I am very excited for it. Being here for the little bit that I have been I'm thinking it will be a little hard to gain some of the respect from other missionaries who have been out a lot longer than I have and helping them realize that it doesn't matter who is at what position, Elder Gill and myself have both decided it all comes down to charity, the pure love of Christ, we are striving to love them no matter what and do whatever we can to help them! The area that we are in is kind of slow, not much going on, but hopefully we can change that. I've really been praying for the strength and the courage to talk to everyone and share something with everyone so we will see how that goes. Things need to happen here, all we need to do is put our trust and our faith in the Lord and I know that he will help us. He is in all that we do and it is amazing to feel his presence when we knock on a door or stop to talk to someone on the street. I ask that you will just keep us and the missionaries here in your prayers, the more the merrier! :) This Wednesday we have a Zone Leader Council and the Friday will be my first zone meeting as the zone leader, I'm a little nervous but again, just put my faith and trust in the Lord and as long as I prepare I need not fear. ;) I really am excited though to have the whole zone together and really get to know them better. I do know a lot of the missionaries in the zone, I've been on some exchanges with them at leadership, or they've served in Charlottesville or something, but now I will really get to know them and be a part of all the amazing things they do as a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amazing stuff! :) We serve in a family ward and a singles branch, the branch is so small so there is definitely a lot of work that needs to go on there, other than that it will be great, they are both such great places to be in and it will be good to be a part of their family. :) Tell Rob to have fun, tell Eric to keep it up and just have fun with it, Mom, I wish you the best of luck on your midterms and I'm sure you will do great, you always work so hard! :) Mom, I want YOU to tell Afton hi for me and tell her I love her, you can tell her you love her too. ;) Also let dad know that I love him as well. :) Thank you for all of your support and prayers, they are always felt, so thank you. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you, to help with the family. I love you and I hope you all have a great and safe week! :)

With Love,

Elder Hopkins

Last PDay and Ward Activity at JMU

Farewell Friends - 02/21/11

Good morning from Virginia!

I will start with the news... Yesterday we received transfer calls... I didn't make the cut, I'm leaving Harrisonburg! It's bitter sweet, I am getting transferred to Chesapeake, the other corner of the mission, haha! I will be in North Carolina as well which is awesome! I am serving with Elder Gill, one of my friends from Charlottesville so that will be way sweet! I have been asked to be a zone leader so that is what I am going to do there. Honestly it will be hard to leave this place, so much has happened and I have seen so many miracles, blessings, changes... The people here are great, people like: Kat, Ed and Judy, Mario... The list can go on but they are really important to me. They have changed and they have helped me change as well. :) It will be sad to leave Elder Van Wagoner and the other missionaries here, we have become such good friends but I know that the Lord needs me in Chesapeake now at this time. Here is the address: 19 B Kingsbridge place south Chesapeake Virginia, 23322... So that is the real exciting news... Along with something about Michael. He is someone we've been meeting with and we have become really good friends, he wants to be baptized but wants to talk to his parents first about it. I ask that you will pray for him and his family, he called me last night and asked me to baptize him when he gets to. He is an amazing person and loves the gospel and the scriptures and everything about the church, including his Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. This week has been pretty slow so I just wanted to tell you about transfers, I guess it's kind of a big deal. ;) I'm so glad to know that who the Lord calls he also qualifies... I'm very excited to stretch even more and really help not only the people of Virginia, but also the missionaries as well. I am being truly blessed and I am so grateful to know that God trusts me. I love the life of a missionary, it is the greatest thing ever and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's been rough realizing that 7 months have already come and gone, I'm just so glad to know that there is so much more for me here! haha. Always remember the relationship that yall have with your Father in Heaven, as you recognize this you will want to pray to Him, and if you don't then you need to pray to Him to gain that relationship. I love my Father in Heaven, He has done so much for me... He truly did give his only Begotten Son so that we can be forgiven, so that we can have eternal happiness. 2 Nephi 25:26 says, "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." He gave his life for us, so that we will have that remission of our sins. He loves you. I hope yall have a great week, and always remember those little blessings that He gives you each and every single day. There is a talk on mormon.org by Joseph B. Worthlin titled "Come what may, and love it" I suggest looking at that and really exploring what mormon.org has to offer. I love you!

Until next week,

Elder Hopkins

James Madison University Students

James Madison University - 02/07/11

Dear Mother, (and whoever else reads this)

This last week has been crazy, it just flew by! Time goes so fast and it all just mushes into one big day and one big moment, that is why it is such a good thing that we have planners. haha, anyways... I hope everyone is doing well and that things are going good at home. :) Not much happened on Tuesday, the biggest thing was that we went onto JMU and handed out copies of the Book of Mormon and actually met a lot of people and handed out quite a few and were able to get some contact information. That was the big thing that happened on Tuesday. Wednesday we met a lot of Recent Converts and Less-active members, things went well, a good day but nothing too exciting. Thursday we had a district meeting, and it was scary because I didn't find out what I was going to train on until like 10:15 the night before, not an excuse just made me a little nervous trying to get everything ready to help the missionaries feel uplifted and edified. It's a good thing that the Holy Ghost is the real teacher! :) It went really well, I trained on conversion, and how it is the actual doing and believing of things, the action behind the testimony. Elder Shelley trained on the testimony part, it went really well and I'm really glad that it happened the way it did. After the meeting myself and Elder Van Wagoner went to teach a college student, Nathan, it was the first time both of us had met with him, but Elder Justice and Elder Caldwell had taught him once when I was in Richmond. We went in and taught him about the Plan of Salvation, we didn't plan for an invitation to leave with him, but when the time came we were talking about the Celestial Kingdom and how to get there, I brought up baptism and then invited him to be baptized. He accepted and we set a date for March 26th!!! That was really exciting especially because we totally followed the spirit on that whole lesson and just answered all of his questions and things like that. After that we had a few more lessons and then we met with Michael, who is also a college student and progressing really well! We taught him the Restoration and when it came time to talk about Joseph Smith the whole atmosphere changed. We were meeting in the chapel and the spirit is already so strong in there, and then I said the first vision and it was sooooo powerful! It is true, and he loves it, we are planning to invite him to be baptized tomorrow so keep him in your prayers if you would. Friday we had interviews with the President! President Perry is so great, and he is just amazing! I was the last one to go in our district and we just begin talking... It got to the point where he said that I intrigue him... He had a lot of questions about my patriarchal blessing and what it said about leadership, I told him and he said he wanted to stretch me even more in the leadership of the mission. Not exactly sure what that means, or when it will happen, but I think some good things are going to happen. :) Again, he is just amazing and so knowledgeable and so caring. It is great to be able to in one on one and talk to him about the district and about investigators that we have and that we are working with. Later that day we had dinner with a less-active who took us to a place called taste of thai! Wow, that place was so good. Saturday went good as well, we went to play at this rec center with Michael, we played basketball for a good while and I'm pleased to say that I can still play. I'm so out of shape though it is hilarious!! We had more lessons and then at 7 we had a lesson with the 1st ward elders. Earlier we had found this lady who wanted to learn more and she was in their area, so we passed her off to them so they could teach her. Later they found the sliver on the map where she lives and it just barely in our area, so we went all together and taught her to pass her back to us. We get over there and she is just solid, she has an amazing memory, loves the Book of Mormon, and loves what we teach. That lesson we set her for baptism on March 19th and she is sooo excited! Amazing things are happening, we are being so blessed and I couldn't be more thankful for what opportunities our Father in Heaven is giving us to build His kingdom. That was pretty much my week, and I just wanted to let you know what was happening. I thank you all for your love and support and for your prayers, they are definitely felt and recognized and I thank you. I hope all is well and I hope you all have a great week and that you stay safe and feel the spirit. :) I love you all!!! :)

Much love,

Elder Neil Hopkins

The Aunts - 01/31/11

Dear Mom,

I'm so glad that you were able to hear from them, it was such a great experience being able to meet them. Myself and Elder Barson, our zone-leader, were taking our milk to put it in the fridge, we walk in and there they are! Funniest thing, Aunt Phyliss sees me and says, "I know you" I was so confused because I had no clue who she was and then she came up and gave me a big hug, then came Aunt Gagamama, I recognized her. After we hugged she told me who she was and made complete sense!!! Grandma and Aunt Phyliss are exactly alike, haha. They felt bad for hugging me and asked President about it, it was ok, it was just really funny. :) That meal was AMAZING!!! The greatest one ever, and what made it even better, was the rolls!!!!! Oh man, it was soooo good! So ya, that was that, the meetings were amazing, just learning a lot about the 8 focuses: 1. The Doctrine of Christ and our purpose. 2. The role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. 3. Revelation through prayer. 4. Revelation through the Book of Mormon. 5. Revelation through church attendance. 6. Teach people, not lessons. 7. We invite, they commit, we follow up. 8. How to begin teaching. These meetings we just get filled with knowledge and the spirit and revelation and inspiration, they are some of the greatest things ever! Four days from 10 to 5, waking up at 5:30 to play basketball then going to bed around 12 or later because of talking to other missionaries, it is a blast! That was pretty much my whole week, because I got home really late on Friday, like 9:40, and then we got prepared for the baptism on Saturday!!! There baptism was so great! They were so happy and they looked really good in white. ;) Ed and Judy were just glowing and they loved the whole thing! Ed's cousin, Roy Young, is the one who got the missionaries over to their house and really invited them to investigate. He was able to come down and to both baptize and confirm both Ed and Judy. That made it even more special, also the fact that both of their children showed up! Hopefully things will work out in the future and they will continue to be the great example that they are to their children. :) Sunday they were both confirmed and since it was the 5th Sunday of the month that means that it is missionary work Sunday. Ed, Judy, and Roy all spoke in sacrament meeting that day. Ed spoke on his process in coming into the church and his love that he has now for the gospel and for the members of the ward. Judy spoke on her experience finishing the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and feeling the Holy Ghost so strongly she didn't want it to leave, Moroni's promise fulfilled. :) Roy spoke on his past, and also helping Ed and Judy in their process of finding the truth. Such an amazing day!!! Please tell Eric that I love him, I feel so bad for him and his knee, and I was never one to help him with his struggles. Ya it's the missionary talking... We always laughed when Robert spoke like this, but it is truly sincere. I really hope everything turns out ok and that he will be able to play and just have fun with it! :) I'm also glad that you were able to talk to "Brother Brockbank" haha, I hope he is doing well, he was such a great missionary, and I really hope he continues to have that desire to serve and love the Lord. Mom I love you so much, I love the family, and I love my friends, I am so grateful for all that you do for me and the love that you show for me as well. This church is true... It brings happiness and peace, and we have the truth, so we need not fear. This work is divine and it is lead by the Head of this Church, our Father in Heaven blesses us and gives us the strength and knowledge that we need to bring more of His sheep into His fold so that they can experience this eternal happiness that we have. I love the life of a missionary, and that will never change. I love this work, I love this gospel, and I love my Father in Heaven, and my Savior Jesus Christ. Continue to follow him...

With much love,

Elder Neil Hopkins

Kat's Baptism