June 24, 2013

Dearest familiares,

We have had an excellent week this week. Want to know why? Because we ended it with THREE BAPTISMS!! I just love baptizing. It really is the best. Want to know the BEST part?! Within those three baptisms, there were TWO FAMILIES!!! We've been getting blessed like CRAZY, and I LOVE it!

So, this week we were teaching n old man. (Commence funny stories) It was hot, right after lunch, and the room was SUPER dark. I was having a REAL hard time staying awake. Then, about halfway through the lesson, my companion just took over and went on a rant. Well...I couldn't stand it. I just closed my eyes, and fell sound asleep. It was, I think, only the second or third time I'd done that ever. Well...right as my companion stopped talking, and looked at me to testify, and keep the lesson rolling, a rooster in the other room crowed. IT SCARED THE POO OUT OF ME. It was funny, cuz all of a sudden the room went quiet, and in my half asleep state, I realized it. Then, right then, the rooster crowed. I jumped SO hard, and literally almost fell off the bed I was sitting on. The guy we were teaching didn't notice anything, but my companion, and the priest who was with us caught all of it. They spent the rest of the lesson trying not to laugh. Seriously almost fell off the bed. I felt like an idiot.

This week we had an AWESOME opportunity. We had a mission tour with a member of the Area Presidency, Elder Duncan. He talked about a LOT of things, but some of the things that really stood out to me were the importance of setting goals, and WRITING them down! So, I set goals for my life, and made VERY specific plans for them. It's a cook exercise. You should do it. Other than that, we had a leadership meeting right before the meeting itself. All of the district and zone leaders were invited. He told us about the monthly call that he has with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the quorum of the 12.  He told us that recently, Elder Cook asked about President Brough, and the Guatemala City Central mission. He wanted to know what President Brough is doing to have SO MUCH SUCCESS!!! So, it was REALLY cool to see that notice is being taken by the quorum of the 12 for the work we're doing. But...we need to do more. Always more. It's what God deserves, and its what we NEED to give him always. I'm just stoked out of my mind for this mission, though. 

Then, the other thing that really stood out to me was something President Brough did. At the end of the conference, Sister Brough got up and bore her testimony. It was President's turn after her. Before she could sit down, President called her over to him, hugged her, and said, "I LOVE her." and that was it. But it was just such a tender moment. I have come to the decision that that is EXACTLY what I want with my wife. It was just so sweet.

Well, that's all I've got. I'll explain my pictures real quick, though. The majority are from the baptisms this week.

We did service this week, where we cut firewood with machetes. Yes. they do that here. And that's why I was SUPER dirty that one day, and the next day we came back with real clothes, like intelligent people.

Well...love you all! Probably out of here come Wednesday...Looking forward to area number FOUR! Hopefully in the mountains...vamos a ver que dice Dios...(let's see what God says)

Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Hopper 2

June 18, 2013

HELLO Dear family and friends!

Well...Welcome to my private blog! This is a PRIVILIGE to be able to read this! No animal rights activists allowed! (Dear mom, if you feel that to be inappropriate, feel free to delete it.)

So, this week we have been seeing straight up MIRACLES! We have been working SUPER hard to be able to baptize this month, and it is paying off! Last week we baptized a lady name Aracely. She is the FIRST person in my WHOLE mission that we found, and three weeks later was baptized. I wish that happened more! But, then we reported at the end of the week four MORE baptisms that we're going to have THIS Sunday! So, I'm INCREDIBLY excited! In those five baptisms, it will include THREE families! SERIOUS miracles!

Last week, I forgot to write about some things, so I'm going to repent and do it this week. First off, HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!! I love you! I hope it was a great one! We'll have to watch some Top Gear when I get home!

So, LAST week, I made a wonderful discovery. Have any of you EVER tried figs? Like...the fruit? Well...it's called higo in Spanish. Pro tip: It's not good. Tastes NOTHING like fig newtons. An investigator has an higo tree in her house, and she pulled some off for my companion and me. It looked good, and at the time I had NO idea what an higo was, so I just dove right in and took a HUGE bite. BIG mistake. It tastes of a combo of tomatoes, and kiwi. It was NOT good. So...the next time someone offers you an higo, or a fig...just stick with the higo newtons. They're better.

Two weeks ago, yesterday, one of our potential baptisms named Roberto got REALLY drunk. We called him on Sunday morning to get him to church, and he was WASTED. Well...on Tuesday, his binge ended, and we went over to his house to get him back on track. Also a big mistake. We got into the room, and it smelled TERRIBLE. A mix of VERY potent alcohol, body odor, and vomit. What a glamorous job being a missionary is. Well, we started talking for a bit, and all of a sudden, he sat up and started wretching. It was...gross. But, I ran and grabbed him a bucket, and watched him vomit his regrets for about ten minutes. My comp couldn't handle it. It was hilarious, given the circumstances. Anywho...he's repenting, and going to be baptized this Sunday! Win! Love the change the Gospel makes in people's lives! Moral of the story: Drinking is BAD!!! DON'T DO IT!!!

So, we got on a bus this week. I have always heard of Guatemalan clowns, but I had never had an encounter with one. Well, they hopped on right behind us and started their thing right away, not giving us time to preach. Disappointing, but...a relaxing bus ride was nice for a change. So, I went to the back seat, and the clowns started. They IMMEDIATELY pointed out the gringo in the back seat, speaking to me in, "English," and calling my red hair the "Bomba" of the bus...yeah...it was good. In the end I ended up giving them 2 quetzales. They made me laugh. Win.

So, my pictures...this is Aracely! She got baptized this week! Her husband was already a member, so...we were STOKED when we found her! SUPER chosen!

This shows my undying love towards the baptismal font. I was hugging it, making amends to it for being gone for so long. We are back to normal now. She missed me.

Now...the Mario hat, well...we went over to Aracely's house, and her kid was wearing it. I just HAD to take it off and take a picture with it. So I did.

 

 

Well...that's all I got! I hope you all have a great week!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2

June 11, 2013

So. Interesting week. Well...mostly not interesting, but there was one thing that was REALLY interesting. 

So, we never go out to work with our cell phone. But, on Thursday (Or Friday...don't really remember) we had to run home really quick to get something for an investigator that we had forgotten in the house. Well, we got home, and every time I get home the first thing I do is check my phone for missed  calls, or texts. Well, I had a missed call from President Brough. At around 4:30 in the afternoon. Now...President knows that I was out working, and obviously wouldn't be able to answer the phone. And the ONLY time he has EVER called me during the day was that one time a few months ago when he called to scold me for being an idiot in the zone training. So...I was WORRIED. I didn't call him back right away, because..I was working! But ALL day long, ALL I could think about was, "What did I do? What did I do? WHAT DID I DO WRONG!?!?!?!" Well...I couldn't think of anything. So, we got home, and I IMMEDIATELY called President. He answered the phone, very serious like. "Elder Hopper." Uuuuuh oh. I thought. His next sentence wasn't much more comforting. He said, "I had to call your parents today." Then I REALLY knew I was in trouble. Here I was, STILL trying to figure out what I had done wrong! He was like, "So...you've got a blog, right? And you put some pictures of you holding up some dogs by the scruff last week. Well...some animal rights activists didn't like that very much." He then went on to tell me how this person had called church headquarters to complain about my blog. Apparently, it moved up the chain till a General Authority called President! I just talked to president about it, and he told me that the General Authority that called him basically said, "Send him home. You have permission to have him on a plane TOMORROW." But President told him that I was a good missionary, and that he would further investigate the thing. So...President went back and read EVERY SINGLE BLOG ENTRY I'VE EVER WRITTEN, and didn't find anything weird. He said he did get some chuckles out of it though. The General missionary office accused ME of writing in the blog (Mom is posting the emails to it), but when President did more investigating, he just had to call Dad to get the blog taken down! So...I hope that people now have a way to read this...whoooo knows? So...that was a fun little adventure for the week! I don't EVER want that to happen ever again! Literally almost got sent home over a little tiny thing like this! Goes to show...be careful what you do, especially if it's online! People are ALWAYS out to get you, ESPECIALLY if you're doing something good, like being a missionary! And they'll use ANYTHING they can to get at the church and make it look bad! So...Good times!

Other than that, it was a pretty normal week. We have some awesome people lining up to get baptized. This Saturday we are going to have a wedding and a baptism...I'm pretty excited about that one! She was TOTALLY chosen! Also, we have another guy who is about 60 years old, who picked up the bottle HARD when his wife died about 4 years ago...but he's totally turning around, and getting better, and we're going to baptize him on the 22nd! We're excited for him! Totally going to get the goal of 315 baptisms this month!

It rained on Sunday REALLY hard. So, we took a picture of us ankle deep in the water, what else would we do?! You've just gotta get wet, and enjoy it. Your choices are get wet and be annoyed, or get wet and love it. I choose number two, thank you. Hopefully I get sent to the coast, so I can take a picture of me in some REAL flood water that happens down there. I'm shooting for hip high.

 

Only two more weeks till changes! Hoping to go out of the capitol POR FIN...but, we'll see! I'll be happy with whatever comes!
Love you all a ton!
Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Hopper 2

June 4, 2013

Hello there, fam bam!

Well, this has been a more or less uneventful week. This whole change is more or less uneventful. There is really nothing going on in the mission. Just work, work, and more work. But I like days like that. We had TEN investigators in church this week, and we are STOKED about what this month holds. We found two less active families that just needed a little push to get back in the church, and their children all need to be baptized! SUCCESS!! Nosotros bautizamos patios. For all you returned Guatemala City Central missionaries, that'll be funny. But...nonetheless, we're excited!

So, this week we were sitting in a lesson, and we had planned to challenge a guy to get baptized, just to see where he stood as far as progressing in the church. We had built the entire lesson around this challenge that we were going to make at the end of the lesson. The whole lesson was really spiritual, and everything was going great. We started the challenge, and right in the middle of it, the Spirit all strong, someone knocked on the door. The little window that is in every door here was slightly open, so we opened it all the way. Who was it? Nobody but the Catholic salesman coming around selling rosaries, crosses, and incense. Reeeeally kinda ruined the spirit of the whole scene. But, it makes for a funny story, so I've got that going for me. I don't think he's going to get baptized. Lastima.

We were knocking doors last week. I seem to start a lot of stories like that. Well, we were knocking, and I knocked one door, the old man who answered in the little window saw who we were, and opened the door. I started my thing, and he just stopped me, looked at me in the eyes, grabbed my hand, and started rubbing my arm hair. It was...weird. Now, I'm pretty used to little kids doing this, cuz it's something that you just don't see here, but...this guy was at LEAST 50 years old. Then, he topped the weirdness off when he started petting my hair. He was just so FASCINATED with me. Something he has NEVER seen before! Kind of creeped me out, but...again...funny stories!

So, the pictures, we gave service last week tearing a house down. We took the roof off, and were in process of removing the frame in the picture of me with the wired thing in my hand. It's a light fixture. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After, we decided to play with the kids. They told me I wouldn't be able to lift them up like a barbell. They were wrong. Win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, the last one was this dog that was on top of a roof that we were contacting. I did this, and literally what happened RIGHT after I took this picture is it stood up, lifted it's leg, and peed on me. Thankfully I got out of the way JUST in time, but it was pretty stinkin funny. Blasted dogs on the roofs!

Well...that's all I got! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all a ton! Thank you for writing me, I read them, even if I didn't have time to get back to you...I love hearing from all of you!
Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Hopper