March 9, 2014

FAMILY!!!! 

But I had one experience this week that calmed my fears and strengthened my testimony that I know that Heavenly Father helps his missionaries. We have been teaching Carlo for a while. He is 17 and is making really good progress. We went and taught him priesthood one night to get him excited to receive it after his baptism. We explained it and at the end to check for understanding asked him why it was important on the earth today. He then said "Hindi ko po idea sisters" Meaning i have no idea. I then had a thought to talk about Christ and how he healed the sick and blessed the people because of the priesthood. And then I just opened my mouth. Tagalog just came out and i have no idea what I said to him, but the spirit just came into the room and he understood. I probably spoke for 5 minutes straight in Tagalog. He then understood and told us he was happy and looked forward to having it one day. After wards my companion said to me that she didn't know I could speak like that. I told her that I don't, that was 100% the spirit in that lesson. If we are worthy and listen to the spirit, I learned that the lord will give us what we need to say and the right time we need to say them. I know that Heavenly father is looking out for me and I can do this training thing. 

I have found 2 filippinos here with BSU shirts too, it is pretty cool. Maybe one day I will talk to them and get a picture with them haha.

I love all of you and thank you for your support.

Sister Hopkins 

March 3, 2014

...I guess the Lord just knows what we need and what time we need it the most. I just found out, like 20 minutes ago, I will be training the nest batch that comes in on March 13th. I am scared beyond all belief. I don't feel ready, I still have so much to learn and I still don't understand this language and cant speak it very well...

This week I learned a hard lesson. I learned that we have to plan well in order to reach our goals and find those who are ready to hear about the gospel and accept it into their lives. We didn't have a very effective planning this week at all and because of that we weren't able to reach our goals and we got punted all day Saturday. We didn't teach a single lesson Saturday. I know a little bit now how Christ felt when he was here and no one wanted to listen to him. So I'm glad i learned this now so I can help my anak (trainee) plan the best we can and the most effective we can plan in order to hasten the word here in  my area.  

Some funny things about the Philippines:

They LOVE American music. Sometimes it is hard to study because they blare the music so loud here and it is all in English. One morning I heard an old Chicago song and they also love queen and journey here. haha it makes me laugh. 

eating chicken intestine....YUCK!!! with a capital Y. We ate it with one of our favorite families in the ward. Then the little boy is in our ward too. He calls me sister M&M because I gave them to him once. I taught his that song "I love it at at at apples and bananas. His mom says he sings it all the time with the different vowel sounds. 

Then little patricia! she is my favorite little kid here!! She is my buddy and is always with me at church.

 the espeleta family. 

Man I love it here and things are so exciting. I am training and I may be terrified because i have only been here for 12 weeks, but i know that with help from heaven I can conquer and receive strength just like Nephi (1Nephi 7:17-18) With the help of the atonement, i will be able to conquer all that heavenly father has planned for me. Even learn this language. 

thank you for everything . Mahal ko Kayo

Love, Sister Hopkins