Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A New Transfer - 05/16/11

Hello Family and Friends,

This last week has been pretty interesting, but I'll start with just this last night. Transfer calls happened and there are a lot of new things going on within the zone. Elder Gill and I are staying which is awesome news!! This month and a half is Elder Gills last little bit on the mission, which means that I'm going to kill him (missionary terms) also it means I'll probably be in this area for another 3 months at the least. There are a bunch of missionaries going to train this transfer which is awesome, training is the only time on a mission when missionaries really step up, it's a huge task and it's amazing as well. We have some more sisters in the zone, 2 of them are sisters that I came out with so I know them pretty well. :) That's really it on transfers. This last week there was a lot of traveling going on, to different areas running some errands and things like that, oh the life of a missionary! Gotta love it! :D We were able to meet with Russell Brownley this week and things went great, he is still loving everything that we share aaaaaaand HE CAME TO CHURCH!!! It was soooo exciting, it was the first investigator at church that we've had since I got here, so it was really exciting to see him there. This Sunday was a little different though, they let go of the bishopric, called a new one and had them and their wives say some things, it was really good, just different for someone new. Even though that happened he still loved the feel of church, which is awesome, the spirit was really strong and a lot of people introduced themselves to him which was way good. :) Other than that we met with Al and Steve after church and set up a time to go see them tomorrow, hopefully they will be there, but they are both really cool and really smart too, Al has loved reading the Book of Mormon and prays for understanding, it's way awesome! Those are really the only people we're meeting with, others are just off and on, so hopefully things will continue to go well. Today has been fun, we got to go play basketball which is always a blast, then some shopping had lunch and now we're e-mailing, so ya, exciting stuff, haha. How are things going at home, school for Eric has got to be coming to close soon here right? I'll bet he's excited for that. :) I'll share a little bit of my study that I had this morning, I really enjoyed it... So I made a goal to study the Christlike attributes each day so I can learn to be more like Christ, today I was on Charity and love. Reading some things in there was good, but I wasn't getting anything new, so I went to the scripture study and read 1 Peter 4:8, I invite all of you to read that and think about it (something important to look at would be the footnote to JST) from this scripture is where most of my study came from. Can we have charity towards others if we don't have charity towards ourselves? In Preach My Gospel on Charity and Love the 3rd paragraph talks a lot about the things that YOU WILL do or have when you have charity, charity towards others, service, and thoughts, things like that. Really good stuff, but then look at it towards yourself. I really enjoyed it and really enjoyed that translation from Joseph Smith which really changes the scripture. Being like Christ is a life long process, and to be honest, we can never achieve that while on Earth, Christ was perfect, Christ is perfect, and studying these attributes of our perfect Savior will help us come closer to being like Him, and put us closer to Him. Charity is an amazing attribute and one that we should all strive for daily, in 1 Corinthians 13 we read that without charity... we are nothing. Also we read in Moroni that if we pray with all of our might for that kind of love (the pure love of Christ) we will get it. God is just waiting for us to ask for blessings, for growth, for knowledge, and He will give it to us, prayer is the means in which we obtain the highest of all blessings. I love the scriptures, I know that they are true, and I know that we can receive revelation upon revelation and knowledge upon knowledge if we read and study the words of the prophets, the scriptures, the Ensign, Preach My Gospel, are all tools to use to help us come closer to our Father in Heaven. I know that this church is true and that is has been restored by a modern day prophet, we are so blessed to have this knowledge. I know Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ love me, and they love you, they know who we are, and they know how to help us... so let them. I'm grateful for all of you, for all that you do, and I thank you for all that you have done for me. I hope ya'll have a great day, and a great week! Until next time...

Much Love,

Elder Hopkins

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