January 26, 2014

Family and Friends!!!!! This was a good week!!!

One cool experience I had. We were going to a members home to share a video with her and ask her for a referral. We shared the video and then had a conversation about how the gospel has blessed our lives. she responded that it has brought great joy every day to her life. We then asked her to pray in the middle of the lesson to ask god who she could share that joy with by inviting them to be taught by us. as soon as she started to pray, the spirit filled to room way to the top. After her humble prayer we sat in silence of the spirit and she gave us the name of her friend. she was so excited to ask her friend to come over to hear the message of the gospel. No one in the room could doubt the spirit that was there, it was so thick. so we have planned to go and meet her friend this Wednesday to teach her.

another thing I have learned is how important our scripture study is. If we don't have that time every morning to sometime during the day to  study from the book of mormon, our day wont be as productive. Every day our bodies hunger because of the lack of food, so what do we do? We eat. We can't eat so much food that our bodies dont need to eat for the next week. our bodies need that daily nourishment. that is how our spirit are. We need to nourish them daily so they can grow. Feast upon the words of Christ every day and I promise you that you will feel the love of the lord more in your life. 2 Nephi 31:20.

Thank you for everything! Your support, love, and prayers. You all mean a lot to me.

January 12, 2014

What a week! So many cool things have been happening her in Calauan. First it is so hot! We hope for days that it rains because it cools down just a little bit. Just when I think I have the language down, the lord humbles me and puts me in situations where i have no idea what people are saying to me. But it will come and I have to remember that I have only been here for 3 weeks. Which is so weird because I feel that I have been here longer than that. 

Let me tell you a few stories, one is about obedience. So we learned a very hard lesson this week. If you are not obedient even in the slightest, you wont have the spirit with you and you wont be able to teach. That happened to us one night. We couldn't get a hold of our lesson and nothing got taught. After wards we felt sooooo awful and realized that we need to do better. We weren't doing bad things, we were just being lazy with our time. We soon fixed our behavior and the net time we went we were able to teach by the spirit. The second time we went to teach we taught the word of wisdom to our investigator Ningning. We were a little worries because she is a big coffee drinker, but she told us that she can see that the lord has prepared her body to obey the word of wisdom. when she thinks of drinking coffee she doesnt have that want and it sounds bad to her. She was very accepting and told us she has already been living the word of wisdom for a week now. Man she is golden. Cant wait for Feb 8th when she gets baptized!!!!

We had a baptism for Jonathan this last week :) He was the last to be baptized in his family and they are now on their way to prepare to go to the temple. I am so excited for them. We have another baptism coming up this Saturday. I will tell you more about him next week. 

One of my companions got transfered out the other day so now there are only me and my companion here in the whole area which is stressful because it is sooooo BIG!!! We only pray that more sister will come in next transfer. 

I love you all so much and I thank you for everything. Things have been way hard, but I notice things get easier when I kneel in prayer and ask sincerely for the help from my heavenly father. Whenever we are in need of help, He is the source of all peace and rest. we are so blessed to be able to pray so we should ever day morning and night. I can tell a huge difference from before the mission and now. I am so much more greatly blessed because I take the time to pray each day. God loves all of us and wants to hear from us. "When life gets too hard to stand, kneel"

This gospel is so true!!!!!!

Sister Hopkins :)

January 5, 2014

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

What a week I have had here in the Philippines. 

First I want to express that there is so much power in fasting. We started our fast on Saturday. We went to an investigators house to teach her but she wasn't home. We then went to a random house and started to talk to w woman names Charity. She was visiting from manila. and she was a member of Iglesia ni Cristo. It is a break off group of the LDS church only here in the Philippines. At first she told us that she didn't want to listen to us, but after talking to her we actually taught her the first lesson and we got her information so the missionaries in manila could go an teach her. I know that we were able to find her and she was willing to listen to us because we fasted. Fasting can bring about miracles and great blessings.

The language is coming. I understand a little bit more everyday. My companions are helping me out a lot too with is to nice! They are very patient with me which  is something I need. 

If i were to give any words of wisdom it would be this: Set goals for the new year. What can you do to come closer to your Savior or what can you do to improve in your life. Goals are such a good thing and can really help us. 

the church is so true. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! It is beautiful here and the people are so amazing. 

I love you all so much. thank you for everything you do for me.