March 26, 2013

Well hello there, dearest fam bam!

It has been such a boring week, it's not even funny. But, HAVE NO FEAR! I will share some funny stories! But, first of all...we have some good news! We are going to have a wedding on the 13th of April! It's the family of the little boy with the hat that I sent home...it's the family Tay (Pronounced Tie)! I'm really excited about it! Also, we have about 6 other people who are really lining up to get baptized in the month of April...FINALLY some fruits! But, knowing my track record, I'm going to leave before they get baptized. Up to today, I have left 14 people with baptismal dates SET in previous areas. Why change now?! But...people are getting baptized, so I'm a happy camper!

Funny thing that happened this week...we were contacting in the park that we have here in the area. This week is known as Semana Santa, and it's one of the biggest holidays of the year, so there were a TON of people in the park, just enjoying one of their VERY few days off of work! But, I was a man on a mission. I had to get my 35 contacts a day! So, I went up to one guy, started talking to him, and he just looked at me, super straight face, and says something to the effect of, "Bro...I was proposing." Woops! So, I did my contact a liiiittle bit faster than normal! :) But, the good news is, I think she said yes! He wasn't on one knee or anything...how was I supposed to know?!?! But...makes for a good story!

This week I had my very first experience with a guy with a gun! Woopee!!! Here in Guatemala, there are a BUNCH of private colonies, which are much preferred, because they are guarded by armed guards. Much safer, the kids can play in the street, all sorts of advantages. Well...to enter in one of those, you have to give a piece of ID, and the guard gives you a paper to collect it when you're done. Well...we got to one of those, I knocked on the door, and the guard when a little bit crazy. As soon as he saw me, he grabbed his gun out of his holster and cocked it...........um.......hi! He asked where we were going, with crazy in his eyes, gun in hand, finger on trigger. I told him the address, and tried to hand him my ID, but he just sorta said, "COME IN. COME IN." Ummm...no? He kept asking what family we were from like the gringo was there with the SOLE purpose to murder the guards of private colonies. So...even though the crazy with the gun was urging us to come in, I decided it would be best for the continuation of my life to come another day when he isn't working...now I'm just nervous to go there at all!

I had to boil water to drink for the first time in my entire life. We ran out of water on Sunday, and we can't just go out to buy on a Sunday! But I was thirsty! It tasted funny...gonna be nervous for my bowel movements for the next few days...

Well...all out of time! Love you all a ton! We need your prayers so that we can get those 7 baptisms next month! If I stick around...but even if I don't...they need to get baptized!

Love you all!
Love,

Elder Hopper

 

March 19, 2013

 

Elder Ward and I overlooking Antigua

Fam bam!
Hello there! Well...it's hot again. So much for the cold wave that was supposed to roll in. Once again, I'm sitting in an internet place, sweating. Love it! Just glad that I'm not in the coast, where it is MUUUUUCH hotter. But...it's been a pretty boring, normal week!

Yesterday we got the chance to go to Antigua Guatemala again! Ooooooh how I love Antigua! Every time I go, I always try to have at least ONE conversation with a tourist, cuz there are Gringos EVERYWHERE there! And this time didn't disappoint. They weren't TECHNICALLY Gringos, they were from Canada, but it was still fun to talk to them! They were from a church, and they were here building wood stoves for people and stuff like that. It was pretty funny...they told us all about all the ridiculous poverty they had seen, and we asked where they had been. They named off some of the most touristy, rich places in the mission...Panajachel, Antigua, the Capitol...I got a good kick out of the looks in their eyes when we explained to them how Guatemala REALLY is. It was fun...one of the Canadians was a HUGE old guy, like...6 foot 6 or so. Then I was standing next to Elder Peña, who's probably 6 3, and Elder Ward who's probably about 6 4...I havent felt small in a year! I loved it!

Hung out almost the entire day with a missionary named Elder Ward from Idaho. He asked me what I did before my mission. I explained it to him. He had a hard time closing his jaw after. I got a kick out of it. But, he's the one that's standing next to me while I'm sitting on the wall in Antigua.

Man...that's all I got! It was interesting this week...we're STILL getting rejected left and right, but last week we went to this SUPER poor part of out area, up in the hills where everyone lives in sheet metal houses and stuff...actually, we're going back today! Woopee! Cuz it's kinda far away, but every door we knocked almost, they let us in! I love humble people! Found 14 news in like...3 hours!!!

Ok...I'm all done! I love hearing from you all! I hope you all have a great week, and SEND ME LETTERS!! :)

Love,
Elder Hopper


Jennifer! By special request from marmy

Me hanging on a tree. Cuz I can.

March 12, 2013

Weeeelll Hello there peeps.

Let me fill you in on the picture, before I forget, cuz that is DESTINED to happened. We decided to take pictures, "Estilo face" or, "Facebook style" in the mirror. This is what happened. 

Really don't have a whole ton to write this week. The week of rejections continued, and two of our MOST positive baptisms dropped us for something stupid I said. Well...it wasn't really stupid, but they took offense to it (Or rather, the booty call of one of the baptisms took offense to it, which caused him to dump her, which caused baptism number two to get mad...long story. I'm just annoyed by the whole circumstance. Wasn't quite as positive of a baptism as we had thought, after all.) So...we're going to be knocking doors a LOT this next week to be able to find someone to baptize this month! We NEED your prayers and help for that. Help us out, por fa.

This week we were knocking doors. It's pretty common here to put your dogs on the roof. Such was the case in this house that I was knocking. If it's an especially angry dog, I like to play with it! Well, this house had a BIG, ANGRY rotweiller on the roof. So, naturally, I wave my arms like a lunatic at it to tick it off. Success. Well, I got back to knocking the door, and right as I put my attention back there, a big fat drop of drool just came falling down, right onto the crown of my head. It was one of the funniest, most disgusting things that's ever happened to me. Dog justice.

This week, on Friday night at about 6 PM ALL the lights went out in the entire colony where we were. Like...EVERYWHERE was COMPLETELY dark. Now...I don't think I've EVER been scared here in Guatemala at night. Normally, that's when the weirdos come out, and the Guatemalan weirdos are MUCH better than the American weirdos. Never been robbed, never been shot at, nothing like that. But this night...I don't know what it was. I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that it was PITCH black everywhere we went! But, we were just trucking along when I got this feeling, "Elder Hopper...GET. HOME. NOW." I couldn't decide if it was me just being scared, or a prompting. So, we went to the family that was going to accompany us to our next appointment to deliberate with them, where we found Elder Peña and Elder Cruz teaching a lesson. I asked Elder Peña, and he said, "Yeah, I've been feeling the same thing." So, we decided to call President and ask...after all, I didn't want to lose three hours of precious Friday night time! Those are GOLD hours! Well...we called President from a public phone. I was expecting him to stop, think for a second, and say, "No...I think you're ok Elder Hopper. Don't worry about it, get to work." But, I explained the situation to him, and he said, without even breathing, "Elder Hopper, FOLLOW THE FEELING. GET HOME, NOW." So...all four of us booked it home. I may never know if it was just me being scared cuz it was REALLY dark, or if it was actually a prompting, but I'm glad that I have  Mission President who trusts in me, and trusts in the feelings I get. Moral of the story: No one got shot that night! Well...I did hear gun shots at about nine...maybe that's why we needed to be in! We may never know!

Dear Elder Peña's dad, I want you to know that your son did a hard thing yesterday. A very hard thing, but it was awesome. You should be proud of your son. He's a good missionary.

Well...that's all I got. We need your prayers this week, PLEASE! We NEED to find someone who can baptize this month! So...help us out!
Love you all! Have a great week!
LOve,

Elder Hopper 2

March 5, 2013

HEEELLLOOO Friends and family, and anyone else who wastes his or her precious time to read this blog!

Well...it's been the week of rejections! I don't think I've EVER been rejected before, in the mission, and I REALLY hope I'm never rejected as much after the mission than I have in this week! And it's GREAT! I love being rejected! I know that sounds weird, but...I'm completing my personal purpose as a missionary! Pro tip to anyone who is, or who will serve a mission: If you're not suffering, you're not doing it right. WORK HARDER. So, I've suffered a bunch this week, followed up by a PARTICULARLY disappointing Sunday at church, where NONE of the investigators that I wanted to attend, attended! And I LOVE it! Also, to top off the awesome suffering, it has been BITTERLY cold here (Don't laugh at me all of you people in America...here 40 degrees is FRIIIIIIDGID). I love it! Bring on more suffering! Cuz after the suffering, comes the blessings! It's a tried and true method! Now...just looking forward to those blessings! But in the meantime...BRING ON THE TRIALS!!!!

So...this week we were having a lesson with an old Catholic guy. Now...the way they pray here is...weird. A lot of people say prayers under their breath as you say the actual prayer. Normally, during those prayers, where you can hear them praying below your prayer, you have to say AMEN really loud, so they know that it's time to wrap up their prayer. Well...that's what I did. But this guy didn't stop. So I said AMEN again. Still didn't stop. So...I YELLED AMEN!!!!!!! Well...still didn't stop. I just sorta looked at my companion. My first thought was, "What's protocol here?" What do I do? Do I keep praying with him? Do I stop? So...anyone have any helpful hints for me? What is one to do when the old man that you're teaching keeps praying? What IS protocol? I juuuuust don't know. But....it makes for a funny story!

This last week, during the infamous week of rejections, I at least had a really funny one. It was about 8 at night, and we were knocking doors on this really dark street. I used to be nervous in places like that, but nowadays, it's just normal. But, I knocked a door, and this guy on the other side said, as it is normal here, "Who is it?" Normally I respond, "Elder!" Cuz Elder is actually a name here, and I might be able to get someone like that, and I'm not lying! Winning on all fronts! So, I yelled, Elder! He said, "I'm a member! Don't waste your time!" So I said, "Well...ALL members of the church LOVE the missionaries! Wouldn't you want to talk to me!?!" At that point, he opened the door. With a baseball bat in hand........huh. Well...I looked at him, looked at the baseball bat, and said, "Good evening, hermano!" And started my contact. About half way through, he cut me off with an, "I DON'T CARE!!!" And kinda raised the bat a little bit. I, once again, looked at him, looked at the bat, and asked, "You don't care about God?!" Kind of incredulously. Then, he started to laugh. Turns out he took the lesosns from the missionaries a long time ago, and LOVES screwing with them everytime they come to his door. But...he asked me, "You weren't scared, huh?" Well...I was a little bit! But...if I'm gonna die, it will at least be an awesome ending to the week of rejections, no?!

Last night, the week of rejections continued, fortunately. (You can read that with only a little bit of sarcasm) But something really cool happened. All three of my areas are about 30 minutes in bus from each other. I could literally start walking and be in my first area in about an hour and a half, walking right through area number two. All three areas have been bordered by a BEAUTIFUL mountain range. It's one of the things that keeps me calm when the week of rejections occur. But, last night something awesome happened. At about 630, the sun was going down. The sunset was AMAZING the clouds were lit UP in a BEAUTIFUL orange color. We were walking towards the mountains, where the sun was setting, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Well, I enjoyed it and I thought the sunset had pretty much ended, and promptly contacted an evangelical pastor. Not such a fun experience. We argued for about ten minutes, and in the end the guy spit in my general direction and walked off. Didn't like me too much. I was pretty annoyed. But, as I was walking away, I took a look back towards the mountains, and saw that the sunset, that I thought had ended had turned Purple and pink! It was even MORE amazing! It was just one of those things that really almost took my breath away, and calmed me down from my annoying pastoral experience. I think we all need to just slow down every once in awhile, and enjoy things like that! God has made this world for US! For US to enjoy, and we should enjoy it! So...take some time, my dear family and friends. Whether that be in your highrise at work, at home taking care of your kids, or in an airplane to Washington DC, take a second. Look out that airplane window, the highrise, or at your kids, and just be grateful for what you have. God has given us so much. Here in Guatemala, I have seen some of the WORST living situations that men can POSSIBLY live in, but my testimony of God's love for us has strengthened more than you might possibly know. Even though we might be in those situations, God gives us EVERYTHING, and we should just take a step back, stop running around like maniacs everyy day, and just appreciate and give thanks. Find a time this week to do it. I promise you you won't be sad you did.

Well...that's all I've got this week...kind of a boring one,  but that's how it is when you're just getting blessed with rejections all week! I hope everyone this week can just take a step back from the stresses of life, look at ALL of the RIDICULOUS amounts of blessings that God has given you, and just choose to be happy for a moment.

Love you all!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2