May 18, 2014

WE had two miracles this week, Joy and Jerico were baptized and confirmed. When they both stepped into that font, my eyes just filled with tears of joy and gratitude. It was such a miracle. When they bore their testimonies, they both cried with so much thanks that this is now their time to be members of Gods only church here in the earth. This is one moment in my mission that I will cherish for the rest. Now, their sister wants to be baptized too. Very very exciting.
Something funny that happened last week, my companion and I got chanced by a cow hahaha. So funny! She was so scared. She told me that the cows in tonga are so mean and chance people all the time. Then as we were leaving an appointment, we walked by a basketball court and this boy yells "Sister, this is for you!" he blows a kiss and then banks his 3 point shot. Hahahahahahaha seriously my companion and I could not stop laughing
It is super hot here in the Philippines. We are always so sweaty and sticky. Seriously, never been this hot in my life. but I love it here. .
The mission rocks. So glad I have this great chance to learn more about life and our purpose here on earth. I have learned so much about myself and more about this amazing Gospel. It all is really about love, eternal love, it never ends. Because Gods love for us never ends, we can change and become better people through the atonement. We can change into the people God wants us to be. Yes trials come, defeat may set in, we may have fear, but we must not turn away from God. He tries us to strengthen us through his soon. If you have trials, or feel so low, turn to christ. He has the love we all need and the power we cant live without.
I love you all. Thanks for your love and support!!!!

April 20, 2014

So this week so so hot. Seriously, I have never been so hot in my whole life. I seriously dont stop sweating. So gross. And if you dont drink enough water, your head starts to hurt and you see spots everywhere. So lesson learned: drink more water!!!
K this week was holy week. It is a Catholic holiday where for one week they decide to actually live their religion and do as the catholics believe. So all week they pray to god or actually to their Santo Ninyos. They are the Saints of the cAtholic Chruch. They on friday they believe is the Death of Christ. And because that is all the focus on, all shops are closed and people stay inside to more the life of christ. They call is good friday. It blows my mind that this is the day that is so holy, everything is closed, but every Sabbath day we have, we can remember him in the same way and all shops are open. Even on Easter, everyone was out and not really going to chruch. Man, they are so lost. They need to listen to us and then they really will have something to be happy about.
So even with not a lot of success, the lord still blesses us. We have a whole family that committed to be baptized next month, a mom dad and son. They are super interested. But they jadn't come to church so we werent sure if they really would. But sure enough, yesterday the dad and the son came for all 3 hours of church. During sacrament meeting they sang the hymns and I guess the boy participated in his primary class. We are praying for this family and hoping to see a miracle. They said that they enjoyed it and want to come back to church again. AH, the lord is mindful of us. Even when things are hard. he still loves us.

the mission is great, best thing of my life!! Thanks for all your support

Love, Sister HOpkins

April 6, 2014

Sorry po,
I haven't had a whole lot of time to write a main email, but here is the scoop on the best mission in the world.
One...I am training, and talaga training is the best thing in the world! My anak( trainee, child in tagalog) is the best. She has such an amazing desire to serve and she has a very powerful testimony. Her excitement really helps me to do this work everyday. Her name is sister Taufa and she is from Tonga! She has been my second tongan companion in the mission and it has been the best thing!! Seriously I love her.
I still struggle with the language but I am getting better every day. I know that that even though I have been in the Philippines for only 3ish months, I have been greatly blessed by the lord with the language. i am able to converse with the people and teach the lessons in a simple way. I truly have been blessed.
I have learned so much already in my mission: for example, I have learned patience: my mom would be proud of that. You really have to learn that things happen on the lords time and not on our own. Sometimes it is frustrating, but we do it, because we follow Jesus Christ.
Second, I have become a student of the scriptures. Talaga if we want to know what to do in this life we should always turn to the scriptures. Like in 2Ne32:3 it says that when we "feast upon the words of christ" the words of christ will tell us all the things that we need to do, and everything that we need to know. There is GREAT power when we read everyday with faith and diligence the Book of Mormon.
Also, I learned that the mission is a fun time, and that we can still have fun while we follow the commandments. My anak and I laugh all the time as we walk to and fro appointments, or we stop to play with the little kids and just talk to people.
Man, I love the Philippines. It is sooooooo maiinit(hot) but I love it here. Everyone is soooo nice. Sometimes, even people we dont know, will say to us as we walk by "Kain ka na" which means eat now. Every one is so kind and they like to share. they are just sooo nice.
I know that the gospel is true and that this church is so true. Thank you, all of you for your loving and support!

Love, sister hopkins

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

February 23, 2014

Thank you for the support and love. this week was better.

This week I learned that Heavenly Father is really preparing the hearts of the people here to hear our message and that we are put in places at the right time to meet certain people. 

One day we were walking and saw thins kid. He looked really young but we decided to talk to him anyway. He told us he was waiting for his mom. He then proceeded to tell us that he was 18. Man the Filipinos here look so young. I swear he looks like he is 12 years old. He invited us over and seemed really interested in our message. So last week we went to his house to teach him and his family. The spirit was there the whole time. anyone could feel it, Especially when we got to talking about Joseph smith. When I said the name he was like, wait I know that name, I have heard it before. As I recited the first vision, I just saw the light come into his eyes. We had talked about a baptismal date before hand with me and my comp for Mar 29, but for some reason I just kept thinking the 22nd. He accepted. He told us that from what he heard from us, he felt it to be true. We have high hopes for this kid and look forward to teaching him more about the gospel. Had he not been there or had we not been there that day to see him, we wouldn't have had this great experience. 

I am doing all that I can to be healthy here. I am trying to eat better so pray that that goes well. Because I gained weight in the MTC and haven't been able to get rid of it yet. Oh and my favorite fruit now is mango. LOVE THEM!!!! I eat one almost every day. 

Thank you for your words of encouragement.  This morning in my personal study for some random reason I flipped to 1 Nephi 7:17-18. Talking about Nephi asking God for strength to break the bands, and then the bands were loosened. I need to do that. I have bands that are holding me back from my potential such as insecurity, or little faith. But I know that if I ask God, He will loosen my bands, and give me strength to push on and become the best missionary I can be.

For some reason I have a weird feeling that I am going to be training next transfer....AAAHHHHH I will find out in a week or so if I really am. 

So an update on the Buencillo family. They did not come to church this week but we think she might have had their baby. We haven't been in contact the last couple of days. They have a phone but no load, like every one here in the Philippines. But Carlo is 17 and has been doing good with the word of wisdom. He relapsed once but hasn't since then. They enjoy reading the Book of Mormon too. He really likes it. He will probably be baptized before his family because his parents aren't married. Marriage here is so complicated. I guess it is like illegal to get married here so people either don't get married or if they do get married they just leave and find someone else. Weird. But they are doing good. and the youngest boy is 5 and the mom told us that every night before he goes to bed he prays and it is from our example and his older brothers. He even prayed for us the last time we went and it was the cutest prayer. 

Mom, you really have been my rock and thank you. I sent you a letter so hopefully you get that in about 2 weeks :) 

Love you so much and thank you for sending pictures.

Love, Sister Hopkins :)

February 15, 2014

This week we had my first baptism for an investigator I found and taught all the lessons too. Her name is Sister Luningning and she has been a great blessing. She is so happy and so over joyed to be a member of the church and to know the right church.In the picture is Mayce and Ronnie, members of the ward who helped us teach her. 

We also have been teaching this family, the beuncillio family. Linda, Atu, Carlo, and Andrew. They hadnt really been progressing except for the mom. one night we decided to ask Carlo, the son who is 17, to pray at the end of our lesson. He said yes and his prayer was beautiful. we were so happy because we didnt think he was listening at all to us. But he had. And then the father said, if my son can pray then I can pray.  We hope that he keeps his word to us when we go back. 

If anything, tell the members thank you for their prayers and that the misison is the best thing I have ever done. I want to be here with all my heart sharing the one thing that brings me great joy and many blesings. I know that God lives and know each of us.