May 29, 2012

Hello dearest family!

We have had an excellent week this week! It is Elder Petersen's last week in the mission field, so he wanted to go out with a bang! So...this week we pushed ourselves and had THIRTY SIX lessons! Only four of them were with members, but we're not going to talk about that! THIRTY SIX! AND a wedding and three baptisms! I have some pictures of the wedding, and baptism that I'm going to try and stick on here, but the computer isn't being too friendly with me right now...I wish dad were here! Wide open middle finger and all!

But the wedding went well! It was...quite stressful! We had paid a lawyer to show up at 10:00 and perform the wedding. He is a member of the Church, and it was going to be all pretty and nice! But...typical Guatemalan culture...10:00 rolled around, and neither the bride, nor the lawyer were there! AH! So...we just waited! About five minutes later Sister Abrego showed, but the lawyer still wasnt there! So...we (because we're missionaries) took the time to teach them the last lesson they needed to be baptized! We only took about ten minutes for that, and the lawyer STILL hadn't shown! Finally around 10:35 this guy comes waltzing in like he owned the place! Gah! I was so annoyed! So we got the thing under way, and it had to be nice and fast because we still had to do the baptismal interviews, and the family had to be somewhere! What a way to have a wedding, huh?! So we had the Baptism the day after, and that was really good! Even better than the wedding, in my opinion! Elder Petersen and I sang, and I baptized the dad and the little girl! Oh...by the way, this is our preacher man who we're talking about. The guy who got up in fast and testimony meeting and preached for about 15 minutes. We're going to have to remind him this Sunday that that's not entirel apprpriate...But I'm not worried! He's a good man!

Yesterday for P day we went to the capitol (outside of our mission! Gasp!) to go to the mission office so that Elder Petersen could have his exit interview! It was a fun little adventure! Whenever we get on busses it's an adventure! But it took us about an hour and a half to get there, and when we got there we went to Pizza Hut! An interesting thing about this country is that ANYTHING American is REALLY nice! This pizza hut wasn't like your normal pizza hut! They greeted us at the door and sat us at a table, then had a waitress bring over the 20 page menu that they have! And the atmosphere was super chic and cool...kind of a mix between a sports bar and a nice sit down restaurant. (By the way...the Heat and the Celtics in the NBA playoffs?!?! What is that!!?!? Booooo Lebron James! (I wasn't watching on purpose, I promise...but it was kind of hard to miss it!)) But then we got to go to the mission office and I got all sorts of letters! I love letters! I'm still getting letters from Brazil, too, which is kind of fun! I got a letter from Bishop, too, which I really enjoyed!

Abrupt end to story.

We are teaching a family, the Hernandez family. They remind me a lot of Grandma and Grandpa Inman, actually. Every time we go over there we are practically guaranteed a nice little refreshment, and they just treat us like their grandkids! Also Hermano Hernandez speaks a little English, which is fun. Anyways...Hermano Hndz. is in LOVE with the Bible, which is awesome! But he is really closed to the idea of any more scriture. Hermana Hndz. LOVES the church. She loves the Book of Mormon, she loves the idea of Prophets, she loves it all! So last week we went to visit them and we decided that we should share with them 2 Nephi 29! That's the chapter that basically says you're not too bright if you think the Lord would only give us one book of scripture. When we got to verse 6, which says: Thou fool, that shall say: A ^aBible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews? Sister Hndz. read the word "fool," and stopped, looked over her glasses to her husband, just stared at him for a second, then kept reading! Ha! It was so awesome! I don't know how much of an effect it had, though, because he still didn't come to church. But we're totally going to baptize her this month!

You know...I really don't notice the fact that everyone down here is Latino. Race has never ever bothered me in the least bit. In fact, it's a lot of fun! I never notice that everyone is brown, but every once in awhile...I notice that I'm white. Last week we were walking along a road right next to a school, and the school let out. All of the parents were waiting for their kids, and there were kids running out of the school! Almost every single one of the kids stopped as soon as they saw me, and their jaws just gaped open. At that point I realized...wow...I'm really different here, huh? I LOVE IT! I love making faces at little kids who are staring at me when their parents aren't looking, and asking them how weird it is to see a "Pelirojo," or a "Phosphorito." Gah it's a big ole ball of fun.

Tomorrow Elder Petersen and I will be finishing up the Book of Mormon. I read something that I really liked this week! It's in Mormon Chapter 8:38. I love how blunt Moroni is here! It's like he's asking us, "HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID?!?!" He's so heartbroken because he's watching the people, the culture, the country that he loves self destruct because of one thing: Pride! I think it's an awesome example to us! We need to be HUMBLE! I love how clear cut it is here, too! We have one of two choices. We can either be eternally happy, or we can be eternally miserable. I choose to be eternally happy! It has struck me really hard over the past three months or so how much of a choice it is where we go after this life! We aren't judged when we get to heaven, we are currently judging ourselves! Right NOW. TODAY you are choosing where you want to go after this life! And WE GET TO CHOOSE! So...let's not be ashamed to take upon us the name of Christ! Because, frankly, the Celestial kingdom won't really be the Celestial kingdom without every single one of my family members! I want to hang out with each and every one of you guys when we pass on from this world. That's heaven to me!

This week we have changes! I have to say...changes are a LOT of fun! Elder Petersen is heading home, so I'll be getting a new companion...probably a Latino, so my spanish should skyrocket! At least I hope so! I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited to be the one who knows the area, the investigators, the ward and all that jazz! Elder Tays, an Elder in my District will be training, so we get a new Elder who is even greener than me! Should be fun to give him a hard time. It should be a Gringo, too. There are three Latinos coming in and something like 18 Gringos! I'm excited to see what happens! I'll tell you all about it next week!

I love you guys a ton!

Love you love you!
Love,
Elder Hopper 2

May 22, 2012

Hello my dear family and friends!
We had a great week this week! It finally hit Elder Petersen that he is actually going to be sitting in his house one week from Thursday, so he's decided that this week we need to work harder than we've ever worked! So, it should be a busy week! We have a goal of 36 lessons! Just to put it in perspective, last week we had 26, and we felt pretty stinkin good about ourselves! So...this week will be a whirlwind for sure! 

We were working with a family, the familia Abrego...they are a mom and a dad and a daughter. They had their baptismal date set for this Saturday, and in order to get baptized you have to attend church at least three times, and this Sunday was going to be number three! BUT THEN THEY DIDN'T SHOW! So we RAN to their house, and only dad was there! Gah! ALSO, this family isn't married! We're running into that a lot here, where no one wants to get married! I don't get it! You can get it done for FREE here! Just go and fill out the paperwork! So, this Sunday it looks like we're going to have a wedding/baptism, because our goal as a mission is to have 204 baptisms this month! And so far we only have 89! Ah! Urgencia! But that's ok...we've got faith, and we're going to be working our hardest to achieve that goal! 

I feel so scatterbrained right now, and I'm not exactly sure why! 
 

So yesterday we were walking right outside of our house, headed to our area, when this little kid looked at me and asked, "What's your name?" in english! (Almost all kids learn at least a little bit of english in school) It had been so long since someone had asked me that in English, that I just automatically replied, "Drew!" Then I realized what just happened! Maybe it's not so funny in an email, but at the time it was really good! My companion laughed at me about it for about ten minutes afterwards. Kids are funny, I love messing with them! Every single time we've had little kids in our lessons, they always just sit and stare at me. I don't think they've ever seen a red head in their lives! So they just sit and stare! Gringos are weird enough to see down here, but a RED HEAD is just unheard of! But it's just what everyone wants to do, they just have more tact about it! So I always take advantage of it and make funny faces at them. I love kids! 

Here they have little store clothes called pacas, and that's where pretty much everyone buys their clothes if it's not the designer stuff. These pacas get their clothes from donation places in the United States. The donation places send them down here, and the pacas buy them in big giant plastic bags! But the bags are always shipped from a specific state. I think there is a paca down here with a bag from Oregon! I've seen two shirts, one that had an Oregon license plate on it, and the plate said, "Got rain?" and the other one said, "Half of my heart is in Oregon." I want them both! So now I have to go searching for the paca that has Oregon shirts! 

Our shower head broke this week! Gah! That evil electric watery death trap that hangs precariously over your head just busted wide open one day while i was taking a shower! So now we have fridgid water every single day! It's spectacular!

I came across a scripture today that I really really liked! It's in 3 Nephi 18:25. I think this is how real leadership is! Jesus never ever commanded anyone to go away, but rather he invited them to be better at all times! That's how we need to be as members of the church, we should never judge anyone for how they look, or what they are doing, or anything! Just invite them to be better every day by your example! I loved that!

Well...that's about all I've got for this week! I love you guys a ton, and I love hearing from you! Keep the emails and letters coming! (Even though I have no idea if I've even gotten letters...we only get them twice a transfer! But I have faith that you've been writing them! :)

Much love,

Elder Hopper 2

P.S...in Guatemala people are CONSTANTLY greeting each other. Every single person you pass by, it's custom to say "Buenas dias, tardes, or noches" depending on the hour. If someone says it to you and you don't say it back...they get REALLY offended! Not that I know from experience or anything.....

May 16, 2012

Hello! Happy email day!

It was so great to talk to all of you on Sunday, even if it was a bit choatic with the connection and all that jazz. But I'll have you know that I hung up and we went straight to a lesson, and it hasn't been a distraction, so don't worry about that!

So I'm putting two pictures on here...the first one is of me contacting a bus! We do this with every bus we get on, we go to the front and preach for a little bit, then go by every person on the bus and ask if they want to learn more! I LOVE DOING THIS!!! This was...Monday morning methinks. This is seriously one of the highlights of my life on the mission! The second picture is of me and my Companion, Elder Petersen at Antigua! In front of some giant cross that I'm sure has some sort of significance...I'm not entirely sure what, though.

We had a good week this week! Still working hard, we had two investigators that we thought were pretty chosen give us ¨"the talk" though. One of them talked to their pastor, and the other gave us some crap about always being Catholic, so he will continue being Catholic. It's pretty disheartening when that happens. We're going to keep working with them,  but the Catholic guy was really progressing well and we thought he had a pretty strong testimony of the Restoration, and then he just sprung this on us! We think it's his wife's doing though...she never really liked us.

We had an investigator this week, who is really quite smart. His name is Marcos, and he lives in a really poor part of our area. He is absolutely DEDICATED to the Bible, which is all well and good. We started explaining the fact that Joseph Smith had his vision in 1820. He grabbed his bible, which had a little timeline thing in front explaining when the prophets were, and the main points in what they did. He looked up 1820 BC, and was convinced that Joseph Smith came at about the same time as Joseph of Egypt. We had to explain very tenderly that Joseph  Smith came AFTER Christ. I still don't think he understood.

We got to go to Antigua Guatemala today! It's interesting going to the touristy parts of Guatemala. They had it all nice and clean, with police everywhere and just kind of looked like a normal city! There were a TON of Gringos there, too! Also...a guy walking around with bags of live goldfish trying to sell them. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would buy a goldfish in Guatemala to take it home, but I guess weirder things have happened. Also this week in our area we ran into a college Christian group down here for the Summer. They were STUNNED when we told them that we're here for two whole years! It makes me wonder...what do they think as they drive through Guatemala? Probably the same thing I thought the first time I drove through..."They are so poor! How do people live here?!" But then you kind of realize that people are happy here too! It kind of puts it in perspective as to what you really NEED in this life.

I have a new favorite quote of mine! It is from President Gordon B. Hinckley...enjoy it! "I think of another kind of tragedy we frequently see, that of persons of high aim and low achievement. Their motives are noble. Their proclaimed ambition is praiseworthy. Their capacity is great. But their discipline is weak. They succumb to indolence. Lack of effort robs them of will." Every time I think of that I have no choice but to work harder! I had a bit of revelation the other day, too. Every time I have a bad attitude about whatever thing, I just think to myself...The Lord doesn't want me to have a bad attitude. This is coming straight from Satan. And it works every single time! Want to know how to be happy? Realize that happiness is the Lord's plan!

Well...I love you all a ton! Remember...daily prayer with me at 8 AM, Guatemalan Standard time. (7AM Oregon time!) I set my watch to an alarm so that I NEVER forget! Who's doing it with me?!

Love,
Elder Hopper 2


Cultural thought: They use periods here instead of commas for numbers. So if you wanted to say ten thousan fifty three it would be written like this: 10.053. Weird huh?!

May 8, 2012

Familia!
First off...these keyboards in this beat up old internet cafe are IMPOSSIBLE to write on, so sorry.
Hello! How is everyone?! I never know how to start these letters home, so excuse the awkwardness.
We had a good week this week! Like I said, coming into this area we are kind of cleaning up the mess that the last missionaries left us. We were incredibly blessed this week and were able to have 28 lessons! But most of those were first lessons with people who weren't really interested at all. You know how people always said that baptisms fall in your lap in Central America? That's a lie. But every single day I'm loving missionary life more and more, and Elder Petersen and I are starting to see the blessings for all of our work! We had 5 investigators at church on Sunday! Fast and testimony meeting is...scary. We found this family last Sunday. The dad was sitting in his doorway (Which is the thing to do here in Guatemala)  and we contacted him and went straight in and taught him the first lesson! He asked us to come back and give the same lesson when his wife and kid were there, and of course we accepted! So we did, and they made the commitment to come to church with us, and this crazy thing happened...they did! They actually showed up an HOUR early! So we gave them a tour of the church, and sat there in awkward silence until the other ward FINALLY got out of sacrament meeting a half hour late! Then we showed them to their seats, and went to get other investigators! (This story is going somewhere, I promise.) So Sacrament meeting started, and I sat by the dad. His name is Juan Carlos, by the way. He was asking me questions about the sacrament, if he can take it, etc. Then when the testimonies started he was like, "Can anyone get up there and speak?" I said yes. Mistake. I probably should have explained to him what a testimony IS...only two or three minutes, share what you know to be true, etc. He decided it would be a great idea to get up and speak himself! HE WAS UP THERE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES. And he was PREACHING! I mean...straight evangelical walking around the stand, hallelujah type preaching. It was a disaster. But hopefully from that disaster will come a few souls unto Christ.......

We have an investigator named Pablo. He's probably 75 years old. Pablo has parkinsons. He didn't show up for his cita (cita=appointment en español.). Want to know the first thing that came to my mind? I'll tell you! "I knew that was a shaky cita!" Rim shot!

We had another opportunity to contact busses yesterday! I love doing that! Also, it's a good way to contact, because people feel less bad saying no to you on a bus, so generally the addresses we get on the busses are pretty solid contacts!

So this last Saturday we got the opportunity to do some service with our Stake here in Amatitlán. We went to remodel a pediatric wing of a Children's hospital! It was a pretty cool experience. But the Hospital was...frightening. Imagine something off a horror film from the 50's, and that's about it. I hope I don't get sick while I'm here. But it looked a lot better when we got done! And the really cool thing is that there was NATIONAL news coverage there! The Stake president was all over national, and local news! And the church got some awesome publicity! THEN it was on the FRONT PAGE of the Sunday newspaper! And...check this out...yours truly is smack dab in the middle of the picture! Painting a wall! Yeah! Now everyone thinks Mormons are gringo red heads! I sent a copy of it home, along with a few other things! Be excited! Also, if you can get a spanish speaker to the house I bet you can find it on Guatemalan news!

We've had a problem with bugs since I got here. We're missing a few slats on windows, so bugs just waltz on in in the middle of the night! I counted one morning and I had EIGHTY TWO bug bites! And I'm certain I missed some of them! But we fixed the problem last night. Bug repellent is magical.

We have a cocinara who makes lunch for us every day. A few days ago we had chicken and rice and tortillas (If we go a day without tortillas I'm convinced it's be a sign of the end of the world) along with some lemonade and a treat! Two little bags of jello for each of us! So we got all ready to eat (We eat back at our house, because she doesn't normally have another man in her house) and we poured our lemonade, and got our jello bags all ready...there were ants floating in our lemonade, and a dead mosquito in my comp's jello. So we wrote a poem. It goes as such:

Ants in my lemonade
Mosquitoes in my jello
You thought it would be easy
You thought it would be mellow

But now you see the truth of things
So don't just stop and stare
Smile, give thanks, and don't forget
To drink it with a prayer.

*Snap snap snap snap snap*

Anyways...that's enough of that. Everything is good here. Elder Petersen and I are working REALLY hard, walking REALLY fast, and contacting EVERYONE we see! I love it! The work is finally showing signs of picking up, and we're hoping to get a few baptisms in in the month of May! The goal for the mission is 204 this month...so we need all the prayers we can get! Don't forget that we pray as a mission every morning at 8:00! I would love for everyone there to pray at 7:00!
Love you guys!
Much love,
Elder Hopper 2

P.S...cultural fact: People here point with their lips instead of their fingers...like they're kissing the air! It's odd....

Drew's permanent address

Elder Andrew T. Hopper
Guatemala Ciudad Central Misión
Avenida Reforma 8-60 Zona 9
Apartado 921A
Guatemala

May 2, 2012

Well hello there family!
First things first:

WELCOME HOME BRENNA!!!! Ok so she's not home yet, but she will be TOMORROW! How cool is that?! I bet momma Dunlop is crazy with excitement! I wish I could be there to welcome her  home at the airport!

We've had a pretty busy week this week! Yesterday we had interviews with the President, which is why I wasn't able to email you! But I'm repenting today. The interviews were AWESOME! President Brough is truly an inspired leader! I'm so glad I get to have him as a mission president! This month, and last month we had the goal to baptize 204 people! So the final numbers rolled in Sunday night...we only got 183. :( BUT that's 183 more people that have come to Christ! Our zone, the zone of Amatitlán got FIFTY baptisms! FIFTY! IN ONE MONTH! Granted I wasn't a huge part of that, but this month I will be! We broke a mission record of baptisms by two, and this month, because there are only four weeks, we have a goal to get 48!

The area that Elder Petersen and I inherited was...well...it was pretty dry as far as investigators go. We only had one progressing when we got here. So Elder Petersen and I have been working our little tails off! We have been contacting absolutely everyone we see in the streets and trying our best to get a family that we can teach! So far we have gotten four progressing (The one who was progressing when we got here got baptized, so she doesn't count anymore) and we're working with a few families! Families are always exciting! It means getting sealed in the temple, and PRIESTHOOD, which is DESPERATELY needed in this ward! It's so frustrating, though, becuase people just don't want to come to church on SUnday! I don't know why! It's like playing football in High school...all week long you work towards game day, and when it comes you are READY to go! But then people just don't show! Even if we go by their house to pick them up! And it's really deflating! So we're just searching and searching for those who REALLY want the gospel. We taught a fun family of seven last night, but their dad is never there, so it's going to be difficult teaching them. But I've got faith!

WE LOST THE FINWALLS FROM OUR WARD?!?! WHAT IS THAT!?!? NO MORE AFTON?!?! CORA?!?! GAH! Why the change?!?!?! This saddens my soul. How are they doing, by the way? Tell them to write me! Also Jeff Foody! I'm calling them out!

And yes, Adam, things do break even when I'm not there! In fact, the leaving of me probably left some black hole void in the time space continuum of our house, causing things to break! That is my theory.

I had my first experience with an angry chucho this week! There are tons of dogs that just roam the street here. It's really quite sad, actually. Lots of them are terribly diseased, and Annie would cry herself to sleep every night if she saw it! But yesterday we were walking by one, and it just snapped at my companion's leg! It just came after us! But thankfully the backpacks we wielded as blunt force weapons fended off the fiery beast. But it scared me pretty good! I now know to keep some distance from them!

I'm going to send one of my SD cards home this week, with an explanation of all the pictures! The ones that I've got on here are of Elder Earl, my whole District at the CCM, my companion in the CCM, Odilia, Elder Petersen and I at Odilia's baptism, and our view from our roof, where we work out every morning! More will be coming!

I'm loving this more and more every day! It's still pretty frustrating, because I feel like I could really relate to these people and help them, but I can't speak their language! Literally! So  the closeness that I should feel for my investigators just isn't there, but it will come...I just have to be patient!

Fun cultural fact:
Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister clothes are made here in Amatitlán! So TONS of people wear them! And I guess they're super cheap, too! But also, a lot of people will wear clothes that have english on it and they have no idea what it means. For instance, we saw a guy with a shirt that said, "So what if I'm gay?" written in big fat letters on the front. One of the funniest moments of my life.

Remember...we pray as a mission every day at 8:00 AM our time! Right when we start Personal Study! Everyone should do it with us!

I love you guys! Have an awesome week!
Much love,
Elder Hopper #2